Ekiden send-off

Our ekiden team has THE meet tomorrow. If they don`t place in the top X tomorrow, they won`t go to the prefectural meet in mid-October. So just now, in the court yard, there is a send-off of sorts for the team.

Even with the marching band and the entire school present, the send-off was goofier than it was solemn. There was a troupe of male cheerleaders, and each cheerleader wears that white headband thing Japanese soldiers always wore in WW2 movies. They took turns yelling, waving the school flag, leading school fight songs, and doing goofy, sumo-like dances to the school fight songs. Imagine a bunch of middle schoolers, skinny with high-pitched voice, doing something like that New Zealand rugby thing. I didn`t crack up, some girls did, and they received stern stare from the principle. It was over in less than 20 minutes, thank god.

Just one of those goofy Japanese things I guess. Then again, to think that the kamikaze pilots probably received similar treatment before their flight, I guess it is not as funny as it seemed afterall.